The Greatest Hero
by Emrys Akayuki
Summary: Izuku Midoriya had no quirk and never would, but he could never let go of his dream, the thing that had consumed him for all his life. He had to become a hero somehow, even if All Might said he couldn't! Quirkless!Izuku Rated T for safety, enjoy! Discontinued indefinitely.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer, I don't own anything, that's good right?**

 **Well, might as well get right to the story! I've noticed that there are quite a few boku no hero fics, but only around 3 of them have izuku having no powers, one with a sword, one where he did in fact, very quickly get all might's quirk and the last, which should have been in the crossover section was a really bad ripoff of batman, anyway, I decided to make my own. Constructive criticism is very much welcome.**

 **Hope you all like it!**

Izuku Midoriya had learnt a few big lessons in his life. No men were born equal. Life wasn't fair, and the biggest and worst of all his life lessons. He was worthless.

Across the world, more than 80% of the population had superpowers, or as they're more commonly known, quirks. Nobody knew how they came about and even with decades of research, no one was any closer, all anyone knew was that they were some sort of mutation.

In the 80% of the population that had these powers, powers ranging from controlling the elements to being able to teleport at will. There were people who chose to use their powers for evil, people who decided that since they had abilities, they should use them for their own gain. Of course, this wasn't all, when evil ran rife across the world, others rose up, HEROES. The good people who couldn't stand the evil being done, who had abilities of their own, who wanted to make a change.

It started small, squabbles across the world, bank robberies being stopped when the emergency services couldn't do anything, fires being put out by people who could create water with nothing but a thought. As the world developed and the quirks continued to appear in more and more of the population, so did the fight between good and evil, mere fights developed into great epics of strength and power, criminals became super villains and the people that stopped them, super heroes.

But not all was good, not for everyone. With 80% of the population having abilities beyond imagination, this left 20% with nothing, no powers, no abilities, absolutely nothing special about them at all.

One of these people was Izuku Midoriya, a four year old child whose world had just been shattered.

"I'm sorry, but he will never have a quirk"

Those were the words that ended his life before it could ever begin he didn't know the rest that had been said, he didn't know what else the doctor or his mother had said. That night he re-watched his hero saving people, and could only hope he'd save him too, from the hell that had become his life.

LINE

In only 2 years since that fateful day things had only gotten worse, his friends had abandoned him, they used to be as thick as thieves, but then they got quirks and he didn't, but then he became the freak, the outcast, the worthless.

But today, that was going to change, because today was the day All Might was in town, at a local event, Izuku hadn't paid much attention to the details, only enough to know that All Might would be there and he would be doing a signing. It had taken a while to convince his mother to take him, but seeing him smile for the first time in two years had been enough.

It took a while to get to the mall, they cut it very close.

"Come on mum, we have to get there soon, the signing ends at six and then he'll leave, I can't miss this" Izuku pleaded

"Alright dear" His mother placated, whilst struggling against her child's surprisingly strong grip, unfortunately it was all for naught as Izuku wriggled away from her hand and ran off into the gathered crowed, obviously impatient to get there. "Wait!" His mother cried, but the young Midoriya was already out of earshot.

Izuku didn't remember the last time that he had been anywhere so crowded, let alone anywhere without his mother, as a six year old child, he didn't have a lot of free time, but Izuku didn't bother thinking about such trivial things for long, he had to meet All Might! He had to know if he could become a hero.

Despite being quirkless and having his life upturned just under two years ago, Izuku still held hope for his dream. He wasn't delusional, not by far, that had been beaten out of him, mentally and physically for the last few years, old friends became bullies and adults looked at him with pity and disgust, the only one he could really count on was his own mother, but even she only stared at him with guilt.

But he could never let go of his dream, the thing that had driven his entire life for 4 years, the thing he obsessed about day and night for the entirety of his young life. He wanted to save people, he wanted to work with All Might, the greatest person in the world and his personal hero.

Izuku quickly weaved through the dense crowd, being as small as he was did have perks after all. It took a few minutes of struggling through the tight spaces between legs… and tentacles, and whatever that grey thing was, but he was finally at the front, He could see All Might!

"YES, IT IS ME!" His grinning face, his classic costume, everything about him was perfect, except for the fact his back was turned and he was walking away.

"No" Izuku whispered to himself, he was too late, he had missed his hero and now he was never going to- "NO" He wouldn't accept it. Quickly he rushed through the security, deftly dodging whatever restrictive quirks they attempted to use to stop him. Luckily they couldn't use anything strong on a child.

In an instant he was behind the security tape blocking off the exit and blocking him from All Might. He stretched out his hand, it brushed the cape, yes this was hit, he was about to –

Rough hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back. "Look kid, I know you're excited, but you can't just run up to-"

"NO!" Izuku screamed, his cries attracting the attention of the crowd behind him and causing the minor heroes holding him to flinch back. Tears streamed down his face as the door in front of him finally clicked shut. That was it.

The muttering of the people behind him and the finally audible shouts of his mother were the last things he heard before blacking out.

LINE

A hand stroking his hair gently was the first thing he noticed, the second was the muted talking around him, he recognized his mother's voice, but who was the other one? He forced his eyes open from his unwanted sleep, only to shut them again against the bright florescent lights above him. Wait… He had seen something. Izuku's eyes snapped open once again, this time he ignored the lights and the pain entering his eyes, and attempted to turn his head against the hand on his hair but it wouldn't let him move.

"Izuku honey, you scared me back there, I can't believe you did something so irresponsible! He could hear the anger in his mother's voice, but what really hit home were the tears that had started dripping down onto his face.

"I'm sorry mum" How could he have been so stupid, he wasn't thinking at the time, he had just wanted to meet All Might. The depression came back full force. All Might, that would never happen now, his hero was gone, and was probably doing hero things, he would never get the chance to meet him again with how busy he was, there was no way he'd be back to his hometown in Izuku's lifetime.

"Your mother's right son, what you did was quite stupid, but it's all right now" That voice, it's all right now? He knew that, he had heard that a thousand times before.

Izuku finally managed to turn his head, tears welled up in his eyes as he finally managed to cast his eyes upon the person in front of him. His dreams had been answered, he was there. "All Might" He whispered in awe, overwhelmed by the emotions he was feeling. "You're here"

All might laughed his mighty confidant laugh "That I am, my young fan!" He grinned "I heard your yell as the door closed; I thought that maybe a villain had attacked!" He laughed again and Izuku smiled, no villain would be stupid enough to attack an event that had All Might attending

Izuku's smile faltered, this was his moment "All Might I wanted to-"

"No need to worry young Midoriya" Apparently he had gotten his name at some point, probably from his mother "It is already done" He grinned and proudly presented the notebook that Izuku was carrying on him, open to a page that had All Might's mighty signature magnificently scrawled across it. "Now, please excuse me I have to get back to my work, evil doesn't stop itself you know!"

As he started turning around Izuku managed to find his voice again "Wait!"

"Hm?" All Might turned back

"That's not what I wanted… I-" The words almost didn't come out, being swallowed up by nervousness and apprehension "I need to know"

"Know what my boy?" All Might smiled

"Please, can I be a hero?" He looked down, unable to watch his heroes reaction "I-I-I don't have a quirk but, I've always wanted to be a hero, I want to be just like-" Izuku looked up again "You…" His voice tapered off with All Might's expression. He wasn't smiling.

All Might sighed deeply "Midoriya… Son" Tears welled up in Izuku's eyes. No, this couldn't be happening. "Why do you want to be a hero?"

"It's me dream" Izuku wanted to scream, he wasn't stupid, he knew exactly where this conversation was going

All Might rand a hand through his hair "Dream?" he sighed "That's…" He seemed to be struggling with the words, understanding what he was about to say. "You can't hold onto dreams forever"

Izuku's breath hitched in his throat as All Might continued. "You may not have a quirk, but that doesn't mean that you can't help others, you can be a policeman or a fireman, there are plenty of fulfilling jobs in the world" His bleak expression didn't really reflect his words, but what neither of them were expecting was what Izuku said next.

"You mean the clean-up crew?" He didn't know where the words had come from and he certainly didn't expect the amount of disdain that seemd to be dripping off them

All Might reeled back slightly " No, I didn't-" He started

"But you did, didn't you" Izuku cut him off " because that's all they are, even support heroes are better than being one of them, the garbage men of the world!"

"Izuku!" His mother's shocked cry cut though the tense silence that surrounded them but Izuku wasn't done.

"But we're worse than that, aren't we?" He didn't really mean what he was saying, but he couldn't stop "We don't have anything, we're pushed down and trodden on; we're not the garbage men. WE'RE THE GARBAGE!"

The smile had all but disappeared from All Might's face, but what could he say? Even he knew the child was going through his distress, there was nothing he could say to cheer him up.

The silence was deafening, only the quiet drips of Izuku's tears hitting the floor and the buzzing of the lights above made any noise. Nobody moved; it seemed that they had even forgotten to breath.

 **And that's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed it, and I would like you all to know that I have absolutely no detailed plan for this, I've written down no ideas and no plot, I have nothing at all, just making this up as I go along.**

 **I do of course have a vague idea of what I'm doing and where I'm going with this, but I'm not totally on top of it, that being said throw me any ideas you might have for weapons and tech, anything that seems smart. That being said, he won't be getting an iron man suit or force fields or anything.**

 **Anyway, that's all. Updates will be infrequent and I'll (probably) see you next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The notebook lay open on his desk, the first pages crumpled, ripped and stuck back together, displaying a now barely eligible autograph from the hero All Might himself.

It had been two days since his argument with his ex-hero and he still couldn't bring himself to get rid of the book, he had destroyed it in a fit of rage when he had gotten home but not ten minutes later he was in tears taping it back together, it was something that had consumed his entire life, there, sitting in front of him, how could he let it go?

A cursory glance around the room would reveal much of the same treatment to his action figures and posters, he was his hero, the man he had always aspired to be, the man who he had watched inspirational films of during his formative years. It wasn't so easy to let go.

But it was easy to wallow in despair, and that was just what he had been doing for the past two days, sitting in his room trashing and fixing everything he could find, he hadn't left to eat drink or even go to the toilet, which, he supposed, was easy seeing as he didn't have anything to get rid of, during that time he hadn't spoken a word, the only noises emanating from the room had been sobbing and destruction.

But it wasn't worth it. Izuku sighed, and slumped onto his bed, rolling onto his side and staring at the door, his mother had tried to talk to him on the first day, and suggested they go out for a meal on the second, a way to 'cheer him up' he appreciated the gesture, but his mother wouldn't understand, she had never wanted to be a hero and she had a quirk in the first place, even as bad as hers was it was still something Izuku would trade anything for.

Making a decision Izuku rolled off of his bed and walked towards the door, the curtains in the room were closed, but the clock on his desk told him it was only about eight in the evening.

Closing the door behind him he made his way into the living room where he could see the lights were still on. Only to pause at the entrance due to the sound of sobbing from the couch. He let out another sigh, his mother was always such a gentle soul, he didn't want to hurt her like this. Mustering up the courage he walked out into the room and stood in front of the couch.

"Mum?" He said breaking her from her tears.

"Izuku?" She took one look at him with bloodshot eyes before, in an impressive show of athleticism, jumping off the couch and enveloping him in a tight hug.

Almost involuntarily, he let out a smile and a happy sigh as he relaxed into her touch, he didn't know why he spent so much time alone, this was what he would need to get back to normal.

"I'm so sorry, mum" He said, tears starting to build up in his eyes. Immediately she stretched back from him, laying her hands on his shoulders and staring into his eyes, tears streaming from those too as she put on a watery smile

"You have nothing to apologize for" She sobbed "I know how hard it must have been for you" She didn't, but he appreciated the sentiment all the same and leaned forward to close the hug once more.

LINE

After their emotional moment his mother decided that it was a good time for them to eat something, as it turned out she had only eaten as much as he had during his wallow, namely, nothing, and he agreed that it was about time.

She had made a simple curry, one of his favourites, another attempt to make him feel better, and he had to say, this one was working better than anything else, there really was something to comfort food.

"Izuku, honey" His mother started hesitatingly, something to tell him? "I-I have something hear that you might like" He stayed silent but gave a small smile for her to continue.

"When you were younger, when we didn't…" She dropped off "When we didn't know about you having no…" She stopped as he looked down and started playing with his food, just as he was starting to feel better.

"Well" she continued anyway "Well you were always so smart, and I thought your quirk might be, well, we all thought your quirk might be super intelligence" She reached under the table and brought out a plastic packet full of paper "and a quirk like that- it's hard to determine just how powerful it is and I got you this to-"

"Is that a quirk test?" Izuku's eyes were locked onto the packet, wide and unblinking. He had heard of those, hell, he had even considered getting one before the doctor's test, and here it was, in front of him now.

"I-it's fine if you don't want it now, but I thought maybe you'd like to- Maybe it would be a fun thing to do?" His mother hesitatingly placed it on to the table. It was obvious that she hadn't thought it all the way through, what child would want to further prove himself worse than everyone else?

But Izuku was no normal child; he was a child who aspired to be something greater, someone whose hero had destroyed his world just days ago. He wanted to prove himself, and this was a perfect opportunity!

A wide smile stretched across his face as he looked towards his mother "Mum" He started, unable and un-wanting to disguise the joy in his voice "This is perfect!"

Within minutes he had finished his curry and taken the packet, running back to his room. For the rest of the night all that could be heard were the quick scratchings of a pencil.

LINE

A week passed since Inko had sent off her son's work and they were about to head out to the grocery store when she heard a knock at the door. Wondering who it could be she quickly opened the door with a smile.

"Hello there" She said as she took in the woman standing outside. The woman had black hair tied up into a pony tail and was wearing what could only be described as a stylish doctor's coat, in addition to the normal flat coat there were black accents running up and down the sleeves, connecting to imitations of shoulder and elbow patches of the same colour. A glace behind her revealed a black hood too.

The woman adjusted her glasses slightly and smiled "Hello there Mrs Midoriya, I'm here on behalf of the quirk assessment organization, part in part of government relations and world-wide hero organizations, I don't expect you to have heard of us; may I come in?"

"Err…" Inko hesitated

"I apologise" The woman smiled "I should have been clearer, I'm here because of the test you sent to us a week ago, I would like to talk to the young man in question" She chuckled "It is rather important, and I don't have nearly as much free time as I would like, so may I come in?"

Inko stepped back from the door in a daze "Yes, of course, should I get him… um- s-sorry, what's your name?"

"You may call me Hana, and I believe I can find my way around, thank you" Another benign smile put Inko at ease.

She stepped aside and let the Hana walk through the house. "Izuku's room is on the left!" Inko managed to shout out before the woman left her sight.

LINE

A shuffle of noise behind Izuku grabbed his attention, from his notebook, there had been a report of a villain attack earlier that day and Izuku was taking the time to write down all his observations of the quirks employed in the fight, he had started earlier that week and he had found that it was very calming, something to stimulate his brain and obsession of superheroes at the same time.

"Mum?" He swivelled in his chair to face the door, only to freeze when he saw a woman he didn't recognize

"Hello there" the woman said, a soft smile playing on her lips "My name is Hana, and you must be Izuku Midoriya, it's a pleasure to meet you" She finished with a small incline of her head

Izuku leaned back narrowing his eyes fearfully, who was this strange woman?

"I'm sorry" He face switched to concerned in an instant "I didn't mean to scare you, your mother let me in, I'm here on behalf of the quirk assessment organization" Something must have shown on Izuku's face as she immediately smiled and followed up with "I see you recognize us" The smile widened "That's a first"

"You're here about my test?" Izuku questioned

"Very astute of you" She nodded "Yes I am, it was… concerning"

"Concerning?"

"May I sit down?" She gestured to his bed and Izuku nodded slowly "Thank you"

"C-can I ask what was so wrong about my test?"

"Well, not wrong, so much as… interesting"

"Interesting?" Izuku wondered just what he could have put down to cause such a reaction

"To me" she smiled

"You?"

"Yes, the organization itself was very happy with your test and they were quite ready to send you back the results, but they needed a doctor to sign on the release, and that's where I came in"

"You're a doctor?"

He smile widened again "Therapist actually, I work closely with professional heroes, in their line of work it's not uncommon to see something distressing"

Izuku nodded, that was easy to understand, but, she worked with heroes? Why was she here, talking to him?

"Why am I here?" izuku's eyebrows shot into his hairline. Could she-

"Read your mind?" She grinned and let out a short giggle "No, I can't" Hana adjusted her glasses again and looked into his eyes. For the first time he saw the strange golden colour of them.

"My quirk" She continued "Is perfectly suited to my field of expertise, I won't get into specifics, but I am able to read people like billboards, guessing their thoughts doesn't come as much difficulty after that, especially in someone who wears their emotions of their sleeves, like you."

"But before I waste too much time performing magic tricks I'd like to get to the reason I am here"

Izuku was about to speak and she held up a hand to stop him "Please, let me speak, this will go that much smoother if I'm able to explain everything first, questions can come later"

"I told you that quirk assessment tests need signing off by a doctor yes?" Izuku nodded and she continued "Well, this isn't strictly true" He leaned forward in curiosity "This system only applies to quirks involving super intelligence, and only for younger applicants, we find" she paused, as if thinking her next words though

"We find that with intelligence, particularly super intelligence there comes a level of… arrogance with that" She finished and turned to look at him, studying his response. Izuku made sure to keep his face calm, although with whatever her quirk was there was no telling what she could see.

She let out a short hum before continuing, the smile clear from her face "And because of that, we like to make sure that they, with all their ability, don't do something monumentally stupid, such as start working for villains… or crashing the stock market" She started smiling again "Of course, since the introduction of the assessment tests we have yet to have such a case, as most are immediately offered a position of learning and experimentation with the government and select science programs we like to support"

"So… I-is this…" He tapered off, not letting himself believe something so fantastic was happening, he had done well on the test and she was here to help him? Offer him a job? What else could it be?

"No" She said as his heart froze "This isn't what you're thinking, I believe I told you that your results were concerning"

He nodded haltingly and she stood up and started walking around the room, staring intently at the ripped posters and damaged action figures that lined the walls, examining them.

"Because in the… twenty some years this test has been going on, we have never had a single applicant that wanted to be a hero, it would be smarter to make money trading, help people by inventing things, or just have an easy life, with super intelligence all that would come naturally"

"And while that was interesting to me, what was more so, was the fact that you-" She turned to look at him with a piercing stare "-are quirkless"

 **What a wonderful cliff-hanger, you all love those right? Well anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, and that my dialogue was done well, it's my first time writing such a long conversation, I know that there's no action so far and that must be annoying, but I'm building to that, got a lot to cover first, but don't worry, I'll get there.**

 **Hana is an OC of mine, and she will be featured quite a bit in these earlier chapters, a reviewer pointed out that if you could be a hero with nothing but training and technology loads of people would do it, so this is my, I hope, clever way around that.**

 **Anyway, hope that was good, and I'll see you next chapter! Follow favourite and review :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi there, sorry to say this isn't a story update, but if you like this story you should read this though. I know that this doesn't have a large following, and that makes this much easier.**

 **I have run into a writing block, sort of, y'see I wanted to write this story of a quirkless deku relying only on tech, because frankly, there aren't any good ones and most of them end up with him getting one for all anyway, like, just, super early on too, most of the time before UA, it's ridiculous.**

 **Anyway, at the time or writing what I have so far I had only ever seen the anime and I thought to myself that to get a better grasp on the world and events surrounding the story I should read the manga, so I read the entire thing (131) chapters in 2 days, and holy shit it's good!**

 **But regardless, it has brought up issues in writing this now, the story (which is great) isn't very… malleable, it has the sort of thing that I like to call right place right time syndrome, where specific characters have to be in specific places at specific times or people die and everything gets fucked up. Other things have this too, like one piece for instance.**

 **For instance, the giant robot in the UA test, if he didn't have one for all he wouldn't be able to beat it and save uraraka, of course the people running the test would probably turn it off before that, but I digress, another time was when they were escaping from the boat in the disaster zone, I think you can see my point.**

 **Furthermore after the events of the anime, the entire thing becomes VERY one for all specific in places, can't really do anything with that.**

 **And finally, technology, so much technology, in the manga there is a character attending UA in the support department (the people who make the costumes and quirk enhancing equipment for heroes) and she's an inventor, doesn't even have an intelligence quirk, but what she does have, is a fuck tonne of tech, jetpacks, engines, exoskeletons, auto-dodging machines, it's just ridiculous. And this is where I run into my problem. I could do ANYTHING with this Izuku, anything at all, any tech I could think of, and there's the issue, because I can think of it, he can think of it and if he can think of it, why wouldn't he use it?**

 **I will eventually attempt to continue this, maybe when I've had some better ideas, but for the time being I'm gonna work on a different boku no hero fic, a gamer one :) Because I read all of that too and I have SO many idea you would not believe, anyway, sorry about this, and I hope you read my other works in the future.**


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